Digital lighting technologies, i.e. illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications.
Many lighting fixtures have been designed that implement LEDs to reap one or more of the advantages and benefits of LEDs. For example, some lighting fixtures have been designed that implement a plurality of LEDs arranged on one or more circuit boards. Each circuit board is attached to a desired support structure in the lighting fixture. Electrical connections (e.g. connections from a power supply and/or a controller) to the circuit board are then made. In some lighting fixtures the electrical connections may be made by mating a loose female connector extending from a power source and/or controller, for example, to a corresponding male connector fixed on the circuit board. While such lighting fixtures enable an electrical connection to the circuit board to be made, they require a user to manipulate wires and/or connectors in order to create the electrical connection. Likewise, they require a user to manipulate wires and/or connectors in order to remove the electrical connection in order to, for example, replace a circuit board or perform repair work or maintenance on the lighting fixture. Manipulation of the wires and/or connectors may be tedious for a user, confusing for a user, and/or may potentially lead to incorrect electrical connections being made.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a circuit board support structure having a circuit board connection device fixedly received thereon that is configured to be mated with a corresponding fixed socket connection device of a circuit board, thereby reducing the need for a user to manipulate wires when installing and/or removing the circuit board.